Deep Eternity

BATS Theatre Co. Inc. is proud to present

Deep Eternity

A drama

Winning play of the 2018 Edythe Brook Cooper National Playwriting Competition

By Cerise de Gelder

Directed by Jacqui Mata Luque

In an Australian seaside town, fisherman Vincent Beacon and his wife Coralee are trying to start a family. When his mother reveals a terrible secret from her past, Vincent is faced with impossible choices, and finally decides on a desperate course of action. But for his plans to succeed he must make friends of his enemies and strangers of his loved ones, find the family he never had, and chase a vision that might only exist in his mind.

Ticket Prices: Adults $25 Concession $23 Members $21
Group Bookings – 10+ $22 per person (group bookings must be prepaid)
Belfry Bar open for all performances.
Bookings: Book online, or phone Bernadette on 07 5445 2515

Venue

Buderim War Memorial Hall
Cnr Main and Church Streets, Buderim

Director

Jacqui Mata Luque

Jacqui has been an active member of BATS for 27 years and has been honoured with Life Membership for her hard work and commitment to BATS. She is an award winning director and actor, a playwright and has been a performance adjudicator at Theatre Festivals on the South East Queensland and Central QLD Festival Circuits. Jacqui’s most memorable production is Snow Angel, which was performed at BATS and travelled the S.E. Queensland Festival circuit winning over 20 awards.

Cast

Vincent: Kevin Blair

Kevin Blair has studied directing, acting & production at NIDA summer schools with (now) wife Lisa, and together they established & ran a theatre company in WA for 10 years. Having recently celebrated his first year of life on the Sunny Coast he’s back at BATS for his second production, this time as an actor. Last year he directed the comedy Doggies as part of the season of Deckchairs. Kevin has won various state awards for his acting & directing, loves to teach professional workshops & also enjoys improvisation. He’s relishing being in a drama this time around, his favourite genre to perform.

Coralee: Susie Pritchard

Susie has been involved with BATS both on stage and behind the scenes, for over 40 years, her last appearance on stage at BATS was in the one act play All About Jack in 2015. Her favourite role to date is a toss up between Gloria in Wait Until Dark at the age of 12 or Margaret in the David Williamson play Money and Friends.

Serina: Katrina Pitman

Katrina has been performing for as long as she could walk and talk. From singing in choirs to acting summer camps in her school days, and now pursuing her acting and singing through theatre and film. Katrina has recently moved to the Sunshine Coast from Hervey Bay where she was involved with the local ZPAC Theatre and Maryborough Players. Roles Katrina has loved playing include Annette in God of Carnage, Terry in A Night of Dark Intent and playing the traditional part of female lead male in the pantomime 1001 Arabian Nights. Katrina was also Magrat in the Maryborough Players world premiere of Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad. She looks forward to performing for the first time with BATS and is excited to continue being involved in further productions in the future.

David: Luke Buxton

Luke has been theatrical since a young age and has performed both on stage and on screen the majority of his life. He has appeared in various commercials, films and television shows, including Channel 10’s Big Brother in 2012 as part of the “Fake House” challenge. In 2015 Luke competed at the World Championship of Performing Arts in California, bringing home a gold, five silvers and a bronze as well as an industry award.

Sophie: Teula De`Gars

Teula began in dance and theatre at 7 years old. She was offered a scholarship at 16 years old for Australian College of Entertainment majoring in Acting. After performing in several small productions in Sydney, she went to Queensland University of Technology to complete a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Drama, coupled with a Bachelor of Education. As a drama teacher Teula taught drama and directed several one act plays for Townsville One Act play festival, co-directed 3 School Musicals, including Grease and Oliver and a Rock Eisteddfod piece. Currently, Teula is the artistic principle of Rehearsal For Real Life, a ‘Theatre as applied theatre’ drama school on the Sunshine Coast. She has enjoyed performing in Brisbane fringe festivals and at The Brisbane Powerhouse with physical theatre pieces, such as Senakulo. This is her first performance for BATS on the Sunshine Coast.

Lex: Kate Cullen

Beginning at Coolum and Airmar theatre over twenty years ago, Kate has enjoyed performing regularly on the coast in nearly every theatre group. She has acted in some memorable productions including Streetcar Named Desire, Steel Magnolias, Steaming, Death on the Nile, God of Carnage and many pantomimes, as well as directing, and penning a couple of one act plays as well. She has played a rat, a dog, a chook, a bag lady, a silly willy, a witch, a seventy year old, and sometimes just her plain self. Theatre, to say the least, is her life’s passion. After an unbearable year’s break without theatre, Kate is eagerly returning to BATS where she gleaned a lot of her early day experience as a novice in many one act plays and the memorable Hotel Sorrento, and The Unlikely Prospect of Happiness.

Winning Playwright – Cerise De Gelder

Cerise De Gelder is a Melbourne-based playwright whose work has travelled around the world and appeared on stage, film, TV and radio. Her plays have been performed by independent theatre companies across the country, and have won several national playwriting awards. Cerise has had three plays in the Noosa Arts Theatre One-Act Play Festival, and last year was fortunate enough to have Jacqui Mata Luque direct Unforgettable. She’s thrilled that Deep Eternity was chosen as the winner of the 2018 Edythe Brook Cooper National Playwriting Competition and that it is being performed at BATS. She is also thrilled to be working with Jacqui again, and is very excited to have another reason to travel north to one of her favourite parts of the world.

2018 Edythe Brook Cooper National Playwriting Competition

Winner – Trophy and $5000 prize money

Deep Eternity written by Cerise De Gelder from Victoria

Runner up – Trophy and $1000 prize money

True Colours written by Danny Vendramini from NSW.

Danny Vendramini was a multi-award winning film and theatre director and scriptwriter before becoming interested in evolutionary biology. He is the author of two books on theoretical biology: Them and Us: How Neanderthal predation created modern human (2009) and The Second Evolution: The secret role of emotion in evolutions (2015). He is also a prize-winning poet and sculptor, working mainly with found objects. He lives in the Blue Mountains of NSW.

Adjudicators

This year’s entries have been judged by a panel of adjudicators who are experienced in various aspects of theatre. The reading panel for this year was comprised of:

The adjudicators assessed each script independently and anonymously, within the guidelines of the criteria provided to them. Their assessments were then collated by the co-ordinators and the winning play and runner up were confirmed.

About Edythe Brook Cooper

Edythe Brook Cooper

Edythe Brook Cooper was a member of BATS Theatre Co. Inc from the late 1980’s until her death in 2003. Her first play to be produced by BATS was “Kisses In The Sky”, set in Milton in Brisbane behind the Castlemaine brewery, and the name referred to the four Xs on the roof. This was followed by many others over the next 20 years.

Writing was Edythe’s passion. Many of her plays have been published by The Australian Script Centre.

Prior to her passing, Edythe made provision in her will for the Edythe Brook Cooper Trust, established to sponsor a local playwriting competition. Considering Edythe’s affiliation with BATS Theatre Co. Inc., they were chosen by the Trustees to act as administrators of this competition under specific guidelines set down by Edythe.

BATS Theatre Co. Inc. is very proud to present this competition on behalf of Edythe.

About the competition

The competition is to be run biennially, alternating between one-act plays and full length plays. It is the objective of this competition to foster and encourage playwrights, whether amateur or professional, who will be judged on the quality of their written script, and its suitability in a theatre setting (see Rule 3. b), c) & d). These scripts will be judged anonymously and equally by an adjudication panel.